I have a question about the bulk orders, specifically the new ones that were added with the latest patch.

The first one I got was Lorelei. I couldn't fill it in time so I took my items back to do it later. Then came Charles and the same thing happened. It happened with both of them another time each, then when Lorelei came back the third time, I had her items and completed the order. I have the items Charles wanted too but the problem is, he has never came back. Today I had Catherine and I filled her order in a few hours but instead of Charles, now I have Thomas.

So my question is- does anyone know how the customer order works with these bulk orders? Will Charles ever come back so I can give him his stuff?

Weird... You didn't do 2 levelups to unlock bulk orders for the other 2 in that time?As far as I know a bulk order customer should return 24 hours after leaving your shop/inn unless others are in the queue before them.If you had all 4 in the queue (having 1 or more open bulk order for each of them), then the 3 others should have walked in before you got that first again.

Maybe the fact that for players level 44+ suddenly all 4 should be unlocked after the patch confused the game a bit and 2 got unlocked a bit later?

I'd say to get Charles to walk in again, kick the others from your shop as soon as you see them to make extra sure the others are on their 24 hour timeout and not in the queue when Charles is off his timeout. (maybe also restart the app now and then when you know Charles should be off his timeout)